


Percy Loves Cuddles

by anaklusmos



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Light Angst, platonic Jercy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 18:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2239275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaklusmos/pseuds/anaklusmos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy has a bad dream. Jason helps.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Percy Loves Cuddles

The night started off happily enough; Jason sat on the couch, Percy sat on a pile of pillows on the ground, and Captain America was playing on the TV in the Jackson’s apartment in New York. Initially the boys planned on having game night, but that was soon ruined when Jason realised he had brought the GTA V box without the actual disk (he justified this blunder by saying he had brought the popcorn and soda as well, so one _small_ mistake could and should be forgiven). Percy had just rolled his eyes and held up a couple of movies. Jason chose ‘the Winter Solider.’ They were about half an hour into the movie, and Jason had made a list of the similarities between himself and Captain America. Percy rolled his eyes again (clearly he had spent too much time around Annabeth), and pointed out that the Cap was much buffer than Jason.

“Yeah, well not all of us can have some weird injection to make us super soldiers.” He retorted.

“Yeah, well Steve Rogers has better hair than you.”

It was Jason’s turn to roll his eyes.

…..

It was late at night, the credits for the third movie they’d watched in a row were rolling, and the two of them had bulldozed through two boxes of pizza, lots of extra buttery popcorn, and a couple of litres of soda (What Chiron doesn’t know won’t kill him, right?). Jason felt like a pig, and he tried to calculate how much swordfighting he’d have to do to burn all those calories.

“Nah man, with my metabolism I’ll be fine with like ten minutes of canoeing,” Percy said when Jason told him his calculations.

“Too bad. You really need extra practice. No offence, but you kinda suck.”

“Oh yeah,” Percy smirked, “Who’s the hero who made it out of Tartarus? Percy…Jackson, or something?”

The tone of their conversation was light, but Jason couldn’t help himself.“What’s Tartarus even like, man? I can’t imagine what you even went through.” There was a long silence, in which Jason was sure Percy would either start yelling at him or punch him. “You don’t need to answer that, dude. I know you’d rather forget.”

There was another long, awkward silence before Percy replied. “I tried to forget it, and some days I feel like maybe, just maybe I can, but then the next day I can see it in my head, and it’s just like I’m there again.” Percy paused. Jason wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say anything, but before he could, Percy started talking again. “If what Annabeth and I saw was a watered down version of it, I really don’t know how Nico has the strength to live after seeing the real thing.” He took a deep breath. “Sometimes I dream that I’m in the Mansion of the Night again, and I’m walking with my eyes closed, but I trip and open them by accident and I see these things on the walls around me. Gods, I don’t even know how to describe them, but all I know is that they terrify me so much because it feels so realistic, like they’re about to kill me in my dream. There’s always part of my mind that’s yelling that it’s just a dream, but the rest of me is just frozen in fear. It’s like I’m paralyzed in the dream and can’t wake up.” Percy’s voice sounded so un-Percy-like, without its usual lightness and humour to it. “Maybe it’s my subconscious mind telling me that that’s what would’ve happened in Tartarus, or maybe I’m just losing it. Who knows? It’s all very ‘Nightmare on Elms Street-ish’” His voice is thick, and he clears his throat. “Hey, uh, pass the soda?” Percy says, probably trying to convince Jason that it’s not a big deal. Jason isn’t fooled.

“How often do you have these dreams?”

Percy shrugged. “Right after Tartarus? Like every night, but I’m sure you guys know that, what with Annabeth and I screaming so much. But, uh, now it’s gotten better, once every two weeks maybe. I haven’t had one for a while, neither has Annabeth.” Jason didn’t say anything for a while. “What helps?” “Annabeth, mostly. We know how to pull each other back. Usually before a dream I get all jittery, like my ADHD is getting worse. Swordfighting helps then. Oh, and the sea always calms me down, of course.” Percy smiled, “You guys help a lot too, even if you don’t know it. Game nights like this always help distract me, even if a certain idiot forgets the actual game.”

Jason raised his hands in a ‘don’t shoot’ pose. “Sorry man. A child of Jupiter’s work is never done.”

“Yeah, right. You were probably just making out with Piper.”

“Hey! Don’t act like you and Annabeth don’t _always_ have your tongues down each other’s throats.”

Percy stuck his lip out in a pout. “She’s in San Francisco visiting her dad. I haven’t seen her in a week. No kisses or cuddles for Percy.”

“You have me for that,” Jason winked.

“Ooh, I know you want to get in my pants, but control yourself Grace, I’m taken.” he made his best seductive face (it was terrible). Percy yawned. “Well, it’s like 4am. This demigod needs sleep,” he announced, and curled up on the pillows he’d put on the ground, despite the fact that his bed was like ten feet away. _What a weirdo._

 

.....

A couple of minutes later, Jason couldn’t fall asleep. “Hey, Percy?”

Percy just groaned in reply.

“Thanks for uh, telling me about your nightmares. I know it was probably hard, but I’m glad you trust me.”

“I just don’t want people to worry, you know.” Percy said, not stopping when he yawned, so the last bit of his sentence came out sounding like ‘yahnaw.’

“We’re always going to worry about you, asshole.”

“I’m flattered.”

…..

Jason woke up to the sound of Percy breathing heavily. In the dim light of the TV they’d left on (oops) Jason saw his friend was still asleep, but his body was tensed and he was hyperventilating.

 _Oh shit oh shit no no please don’t be having a nightmare oh gods_.

He shook Percy gently. “Hey Perce, you okay?” he asked dumbly.

Percy didn’t reply, instead his breathing sped up and Jason felt his pulse racing.

_Oh shit. Should I call Annabeth? Maybe Chiron can help? Oh crap maybe I should call Percy’s mom. Oh gods please help_

He didn’t have time to call anyone, because just then Percy started screaming.

_Oh crap oh gods what do I do oh shit._

Percy began to kick out, and Jason narrowly dodged Percy’s clenched fist about to sock him in the eye. Percy’s screams grew louder, and part of Jason was worried about the neighbours waking up, but the rest of him was distracted by the fact that Percy sounded so damn scared it broke Jason’s heart. He had thought hearing his friends’ screams were bad when they were muffled by several walls, but up close, Percy’s screams were so loud and pained that Jason felt totally helpless.

“Hey, hey, just breathe. You’re okay,” Jason murmured soothingly, holding Percy’s arms and legs with his. (He was aware that he was basically hugging Percy, but hey, they were way past that in their friendship.) “You’re okay. I’m right here. You’re safe.” Jason repeated those words like a mantra until Percy stopped screaming and finally opened his eyes. Jason sighed in relief. “Oh thank gods,” he said, releasing his grip on his friend.

Percy looked like he was about to throw up. Beads of sweat glistened on his forehead, and when he ran a hand through his hair he was shaking visibly. “I saw Akhylys, the goddess of misery. It was just like what happened in real life, except I was alone. And then she spoke, but gods, it wasn’t her voice; first it was Annabeth’s, then my mom’s, then Poseidon’s, all of you guys. They were telling me that I’d failed to save them, and gods, it was so real, I was just frozen there listening to everyone I love telling me I’d failed them and you were all dead, and I—” He buried his face in his hands for a few seconds. “Gods, it was terrifying.”

“I’m so sorry Percy, I shouldn't have made you talk about Tartarus. It probably triggered a memory or something.” Jason wiped the sweat off his forehead. He felt so guilty it made him nauseous.

“Nah man, it’s not your fault. I felt really anxious and jittery yesterday, but I was sure it was nothing and I didn’t want to worry mom or Annabeth. That’s why I called you over. I was like 90% sure I wouldn’t have a nightmare, but I kinda didn’t want to be alone…” he trailed off. Percy looked at Jason. “How’d you know how to calm me down?”

“I don’t know, I just know how much you love cuddles.”

Percy smiled. “Cuddles make everything better.”

“Well then, I’m always here for cuddling.”

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so Percy's nightmares are a total mix of things like PTSD, sleep paralysis and various other things I read about, so I'm sorry if it sounded dumb. I kinda based them off of Stiles Stilinski's nightmares in Teen Wolf 3B.  
> Anyway, this is the first thing I'm posting on AO3, yay. Kudos and comments are totally appreciated.


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